Covering well-known songs is a tricky move. You can either stay true to the original or aim to do something totally radical with it. Do the former, and people will ask why bother if it is so similar to what has gone before. Do the latter, and you risk being viewed as someone who claims to know how to improve on an already great song. It’s a dangerous and delicate balancing act. There aren’t many people I would trust to walk that fine line, but Luke Tangerine is undoubtedly one of them.
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) is one of those songs that everyone knows, even though many don’t realise they know it until it comes on the radio. Even then, they probably couldn’t name the artists behind it. (Dead or Alive, if you must know.) So, how does Luke Tangerine approach the issue? Does he bring something new to the pop table or stay faithful to the original?
Well, both. That is what is so great about this new rendition. The original song is clearly at the heart of this reimagining. Still, he finds a new path through this familiar musical soundscape by slowing it down, adding some, almost spaghetti western slivers of guitar, making it groove rather than drive, swagger rather than stomp.
The results are fantastic. The song sounds how you might imagine Depeche Mode would have tackled such a makeover, with the requisite amount of darkness and edge to bring it up to date with a more discerning, more switched-on audience.
That’s how you cover classic songs. That’s how you breathe new life into pop’s glorious past.
